At the opening of their trial at Reading Crown Court on Monday Rebecca Austin, prosecuting, said: “This is a very sad case. On November 10 Raymond Stephens, a friend of both defendants, passed away after being in hospital for a short period of time.”

The court heard Mr Stephens' daughter Emma Harry and sister Vicky Creese left his bungalow tidy after visiting to find paperwork on November 12 but found it in “disarray” four days later.

Miss Austin told the jury of four women and eight men pillows were slashed open, photo frames had the backs taken out and a laptop hard drive had been removed.

She said: “The ladies took the key from a safe with them when they left the property secure in a clean and tidy state but they returned on November 16 to find the property in disarray. One described it as ransacked.”

The court heard a Marlboro cigarette had the partial profile of Rowley and a fingerprint on a roll up matched Budd’s DNA.

Miss Austin added fingerprints on an open bottle of chardonnay matched both defendants.

Each defendant denied one count of burglary and said they knew each other only through a mutual friend.

Budd said he visited Mr Stephens days before he died and Rowley said he had not been at Mr Stephens’ home since September last year.

Giving evidence yesterday (Tuesday), Budd told the jury he would bring Mr Stephens bottles or cases of wine every week and his fingerprints must be there from moving bottles around.

The court heard Budd believed Mr Stephens’ business in France was bankrupt. He added Mr Stephens brought back Euros so friends could exchange them in the pub.

Budd said the cigarette butts had been walked in from the garden or put there, and evidence that both defendant’s fingerprints were on the bottle was “completely coincidental”.

He said: “I am not a burglar. I certainly wouldn’t burgle the home of a friend who had just deceased.